THIS WEEKEND Turning
into the sleeper hit of the fall, Sony's blockbuster 3D toon Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs easily ruled the North American box
office posting the smallest sophomore decline of any number one opener
this year. Moviegoers were once again unimpressed with the new films that
Hollywood studios tried to push on them with the Bruce Willis sci-fi pic
Surrogates leading the pack with a
sluggish debut in second place. The dance remake Fame
bowed in third to mild numbers while the umpteenth horror film in recent
weeks Pandorum failed to scare up much
business.

Sliding by an incredibly low 17%, Cloudy With
a Chance of Meatballs showed remarkable strength in first place
grossing $25M in its second weekend in theaters, according to final
studio figures. Sensational word-of-mouth and a lack of competing family
films or comedies helped the Sony release boost its ten-day tally to a
solid $60.5M. The only number one opener in 2009 to match this second weekend
hold was Liam Neeson's Taken which
also slipped by 17% in early February. The revenge thriller banked $53.6M
in its first ten days before continuing its leggy run which extended to
an astonishing $145M final.

Cloudy also delivered the best sophomore
weekend gross ever for any September release. The road ahead still looks
bright and sunny for the animated food flick. Disney will provide some
competition this Friday with its double feature of Toy
Story and Toy Story 2 in
3D, but it's still unclear how big of a turnout should be expected. The
next major film aimed at kids doesn't open until October 16 when Warner
Bros. unleashes Where the Wild Things Are.
A domestic cume of $150M or more could be possible for Meatballs
making it Sony's top-grossing title of the year.

Bruce Willis saw mediocre results for his new $80M-budgeted action film
Surrogates which debuted in second
place with $14.9M. Averaging $5,050 from 2,951 locations, the PG-13 film
about FBI agents in the future hunting down a new type of killer played
to an older male audience. Studio data from Buena Vista showed that 58%
of the crowd was male and 54% was over 25 - not surprising for a Willis
actioner. The not-so-impressive domestic bow puts more pressure on the
overseas starpower of Willis to kick in and generate cash in the weeks
ahead.

The dance remake Fame didn't win
over too many fans opening in third with $10M for a mild $3,234 average
from 3,096 theaters. The PG-rated update on the 1980 classic hit played
primarily to young women as studio research showed that a whopping 78%
of the audience was female and 55% was under 25. Fame
marked the first release from MGM all year. The troubled studio last hit
the multiplexes in December with the Tom Cruise pic Valkyrie
which performed better than expected with $83.1M. The marketplace
had few choices for young women, but Fame
failed to generate enough excitement to come close to recent teen-skewing
dance hits like Step Up and Stomp
the Yard which both opened to more than $20M. Luckily with its
low $18M production cost, the pic should fare well after factoring in foreign
sales and home video revenue.

Matt Damon's The Informant! held
up well in its second weekend dipping only 37% to $6.6M and raised its
cume to $20.7M in ten days. Look for a $40M final for the Warner Bros.
release. Lionsgate followed with I Can Do Bad
All By Myself which dropped 52% to $4.8M and $44.6M total.

Overture's Pandorum was the latest
horror flick to be rejected by moviegoers. The R-rated space thriller bowed
to just $4.4M and averaged a dismal $1,765 from 2,506 locations. Distributors
chose to program six scary movies into a 30-day period and are now finding
out the hard way that this was a bad idea. Over the previous two weekends,
the films Sorority Row, Whiteout,
and Jennifer's Body opened to less
than $7M each with pitiful averages below $2,600.

The Jennifer Aniston pic Love Happens
dropped a moderate 47% to $4.3M in its second date putting Universal's
sum at $14.7M after ten days. A $25M final could result for the $18M production.
Saturday Night Live host Megan Fox suffered a 47% fall for Jennifer's
Body which grossed $3.7M in its second weekend for a ten-day
tally of only $12.5M. Look for the $16M-budgeted fright flick to end with
$18-20M.

The sci-fi toon 9 grossed $3M, down
47%, for a $27.2M cume. Rounding out the top ten was
Inglourious Basterds which slipped only 30% to $2.7M giving
The Weinstein Co. $114.4M to date.

Touring the talk show circuit certainly helped Michael Moore accumulate
lots of wealth as his newest documentary Capitalism:
A Love Story debuted in limited release in just four theaters
in New York and Los Angeles but grossed a sensational $231,964 for a stunning
$57,991 average per location. With multiple prints, the film is showing
on a total of 11 screens in the four locations. The five-day cume since
the Wednesday bow is $298,550. Capitalism
more than doubled the $26,144 opening weekend average of Moore's Oscar-winning
doc Bowling for Columbine which platformed
in eight locations in NY and LA in October 2002.

The polarizing filmmaker's last pic Sicko
debuted in just one Manhattan location with $68,969 in its first weekend
so Love Story's wider launch and nearly
equal average shows that audiences are still drawn to Moore's unique brand
of infotainment. Capitalism takes a
look at the current economic crisis and earned mostly positive reviews.
Overture will expand the R-rated film nationally on Friday into 1,000 playdates.

Fox saw encouraging results from its Saturday sneak previews of the
Drew Barrymore-directed roller derby film Whip
It which took place nationwide in 502 theaters. Shows were at
two-thirds capacity on average with many reported sold out shows too. The
sneaks primarily reached young women in the 15-35 age range. Whip
It debuts this Friday in over 2,100 locations as one of five
wide openers in what should be a very crowded frame.

The top ten films grossed $79.4M which was down 3% from last year when
Eagle Eye opened in the top spot with
$29.2M; but up 9% from 2007 when The Game Plan
debuted at number one with $23M.

Compared to projections, Surrogates,
Fame, and Pandorum
all debuted a few notches below my respective forecasts of $19M, $13M,
and $7M.

Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com
on Twitter.

For a review of Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs and DVD reviews of Ghosts
of Girlfriends Past, Hero,
and The Big Bang Theory visit The
Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Zombieland,
Whip It, The
Invention of Lying, and Toy Story/Toy
Story 2 all open.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.